In September 2023, the Florida Board of Governors, led by Governor Ron DeSantis, approved the Classic Learning Test (CLT) as an acceptable admission test for the State University System of Florida. The CLT can now be submitted as an alternative to the ACT and SAT, which are both widely accepted by colleges and universities across the country.
Launched by Classic Learning Initiatives in 2015, the test has been described by its developer as a reaction to educational policies that “rely largely on current trends in American culture and legislation.” The test focuses on a wide range of “classics,” from ancient texts such as “The Epic of Gilgamesh” to modern material from writers such as John Locke and Zora Neal Hurston. It has been backed by Christian conservatives, homeschool advocates, and affiliates of religious schools, but has also faced criticism by educational leaders and organizations who accuse the test of holding a certain political and moral agenda. The College Board, which makes the SAT, has spoken out against the validity of the CLT, saying that the company “has not published evidence of validity or predictiveness of college performance.”
One source of controversy is the question of whether the test can be compared accurately to its competition. The CLT’s website contains a conversion between scores on the CLT, ACT, and SAT. With the CLT ranked out of 120, a 100/120 is equivalent to a 1390/1600 on the SAT and a 31/36 on the ACT, but this is not linked to a study; rather, it is an inference made by the CLT. The College Board said that the comparison between the CLT and the SAT “does not meet industry standards” and released a statement revealing that it was not involved in the study.
“We cannot validate the interpretation and use of concorded CLT-to-SAT scores for high-stakes decisions, like admissions and scholarship awards, based on the published study,” the College Board said.
While academic institutions debate the merits of this test, I decided to do an experiment of my own. As a senior who has taken countless ACT tests over the last year, I wanted to see how the CLT compares to the ACT from a test taker’s perspective.
The test has three sections: Verbal Reasoning, Grammar/Writing, and Quantitative Reasoning, and features an author list of over 150 authors and intellects from all over the world who the CLT deems as “those who have shaped Western tradition.” The CLT says its goal is to “reconnect knowledge and virtue by providing meaningful assessments and connections to seekers of truth, goodness, and beauty.”
The first section, Verbal Reasoning, has four passages from different sources: literature, science, philosophy/religion, and historical/founding documents. Unlike passages on the ACT, which tend to feature modern, conversational prose, the CLT includes adaptations and excerpts from biblical texts and founding documents.
In the Literature section, the passage was adapted from “The Story of the Flood” from The Epic of Gilgamesh. Unfamiliar with this text, I struggled to follow the story due to the dense, archaic vocabulary and names. But in the historical/founding documents section, the passage was an excerpt of Federalist 63, something I was already familiar with having taken AP US Government and Politics last year. I found myself breezing through the passage, which led me to believe that while previous knowledge isn’t necessary, it certainly gives you a leg up.
Of the four passages, the science section seemed most tied to an implicit ideological agenda. The passage was about anumerical people—i.e. people who don’t use a system of numbers, but instead use signaling words like “a couple” or “a few.”
EXCERPT FROM PASSAGE:
“It is worth stressing that these anumeric people are cognitively normal and are well-adapted to the environments they have dominated for centuries. Yet numberless people struggle with tasks that require precise discrimination between quantities. Seemingly straightforward distinctions become blurry through numberless eyes.”
ADJACENT QUESTION:
Based on the fifth paragraph, it can be inferred that anumeric people
a. Have never encountered numbers and instead rely only on letters to communicate.
b. Are worse off for lacking numbers compared to cultures that are numerically fixated.
c. Are often forced to form separate societies due to alienation from a parent culture.
d. Live in cultures where precise numerical distinctions are less crucial than in numeric cultures.
While at its surface the section attempts to compare anumeric versus numeric societies, it holds implicit biases that suggest Western superiority. The first sentence reads like a clarification: that up until this point, the reader may be under the impression that the author thinks anumeric people aren’t cognitively normal. But the author then weakens this clarification by following it with a statement that reinforces the idea that anumeric people put themselves at a disadvantage with their linguistic practices.
The question design adds to the implicit biases shown in the passage. Choice B would seem like an obvious elimination if you read the passage with the impression that a standardized test wouldn’t imply a negative bias towards a group of people. So, to compensate for the bias, the questions redirect the readers to believe the passage is neutral.
But choice B, while not the correct answer on the test, isn’t wrong. Throughout the passage, the author lists many examples of how anumeric people put themselves at a disadvantage, and more crucially, offers no positive insight into their culture or how being anumeric might have benefits.
“It very much suggests a hierarchy of capability and thinking – [anumeric people] lack the complexity of understanding like humans,” said History and Social Sciences Coordinator Mrs. Jenny Carson ’03. The lasting impression a reader receives from this passage is an aversion to being a part of this culture, which should not be a goal of a reading section of a standardized test.
The practicality of standardized testing has been questioned in the last few years as college admissions have become more competitive. College counselor Ms. China Hutchins pointed out that “colleges are using tests less and less now” with the rise of test-optional admissions, which was a response to obstacles among college applicants at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, Hutchins also acknowledged that state schools frequently use standardized test scores to manage large applicant pools—including the Florida system, which still requires them. With scholarships often being granted to students who receive certain standardized testing scores, Hutchins said that “it may benefit students to take the CLT” if they perform well.
Nicolas Poliak ’24, who also took the CLT, added that the test’s content is “particularly attractive to students with a strong background in the liberal arts,” and a student who does well on English and reading sections on the SAT or ACT may find the CLT easier.
Even so, students considering taking the CLT should be mindful that, while it attempts to connect virtue and critical thinking, it fails to maintain neutrality in its content. With doubts about the validity of the test posed by the College Board, it is also uncertain whether the CLT will achieve a national audience in admissions. Poliak recommends that his peers “continue taking the SAT or ACT until more is known.”